







































































































The Chambered Nautilus 

by Oliver Wendell Holmes 





Published 



by the State 


u\. 

Superintendent 

Bulletin No. 5G 


of Public 

1918 


Instruction 








AUG 


2 / 


< * e 


1920 








77 j yfi. 



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Department of public ilnstrurtion 


STATE OF MICHIGAN 


LANSI NG 


Lansing, June 1, 191! 



The Department of Public Instruction issues this bulletin to serve as 
a help to teachers and pupils in the stn y of The Chambered Nautilus 
by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The outline for the study of the poem was 
prepared by Miss Ethel Carey of the I la bor Springs high school. The 
teacher’s skill meets its severest test in the teaching of literature. We 
commend to teachers the outline here presented as a most successful effort 
to present a poem to a child to the en that he may get from it that 
which stamps the selection as literature The method of treatment will 
serve in the study of poems in general. 


Very respectfully, 



Superintendent of Public Instruction. 


Vj ^ . ? 


THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS 


This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 

Sails the unshadowed main,— 

The venturous bark that flings 

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 

In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 

And coral reefs lie bare, 

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl! 

And every chambered cell, 

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, 

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 

Before thee lies revealed,— 

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! 

Year after year beheld the silent toil 
That spread his lustrous coil; 

Still, as the spiral grew, 

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new, 

Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 

Built up its idle door, 

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 

Child of the wandering sea, 

Cast from her lap, forlorn! 

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! 

While on mine ear it rings, 

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:— 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, __ 

As the swift seasons roll! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past! 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! 





A STUDY OF THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS 


BY ETHEL CAREY 

Department of English, Harbor Springs High School 

Upon reading a piece of literature we are not apt to think of the 
thought and work which the author has been obliged to put upon his 
book while composing it. It is so complete when it reaches our hands 
that we cannot conceive of it as ever being in any other form than that 
in which we see it when finished. Anything which we are able to read 
so easily and which runs along so smoothly must surely have rolled out 
from his pen with no effort whatever. We can hardly imagine that it 
has been revised and rewritten time and again, or realize that the very 
part we read with the greatest ease has, perhaps, cost him the most 
work. Indeed a writer generally tries to erase every sign of the struggle 
he has had in perfecting his work. 

One of the first questions that arise after an author has chosen his 
subject, is the form into which he is going to mold his material so that 
he can best express himself and be most certain of holding the attention 
of his readers. If the subject deals with incidents, he feels no great 
anxiety for every one is apt to enjoy a story. Interest is kept alive by 
the unravelling of the plot in the succession of events. However, if the 
writer wishes to discuss his ideas on various subjects and to give his per¬ 
sonal opinions and explanations, the problem of holding attention is 
more serious. Sometimes the mere word “essay” applied to a selection 
frightens people before they even look to see if they would like it. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes enjoyed writing essays and knew that the 
public would enjoy what he had written if he could but catch their in¬ 
terest. He did this in a clever way. He was well acquainted with 
the fact that almost every one would read a story and would enjoy meet¬ 
ing new characters even though fictitious. He therefore invented a little 
plot. He introduced a gentleman who was living, for the time being, in a 
boarding house, and who, in turn, introduced the reader to the other 
boarders, reporting the life of the household, particularly the discussions 
carried on at the breakfast table. Holmes referred to this gentleman 
as the Autocrat because of his habit of leading all the conversations and 
arbitrarily settling any question of dispute. However, the Autocrat 
would often stop long enough, while making these reports, to comment 
confidentially on some peculiarity of one of the boarders, or give hints 


6 


concerning the progress of the romance between himself and the little 
school mistress. While these breakfast talks were mainly only the opin¬ 
ions of the Autocrat himself, they were presented in various ways as the 
answers to questions asked by the other members of the household in 
their general conversation, or the reports were sometimes quoted as the 
ideas which he had gained from his two friends, the Poet and the Pro¬ 
fessor, recalled by some remark at the table. In this way Holmes was 
able to give us his ideas by putting them in the mouth of the Autocrat, 
and in a way that was not tiresome. Even then the Autocrat warns his 
reader that his talks are like the breakfasts, sometimes dipped toast and 
sometimes dry, to be taken as they come. 

Holmes was also a poet, so he represented the Autocrat as writing 
verse occasionally and reading it to illustrate a point he might be mak¬ 
ing. One morning at the table he read The Chambered Nautilus, after 
he had been explaining how many cases there were of things being 
similar. At first they might seem quite different until some great poet 
would point out a marked likeness. He said that he did not have time 
to stop and mention any particular example in literature. He was no 
doubt thinking of Burns’ poem To a Mouse. In this, for instance, 
Burns shows that there is not so much difference, after all, between the 
destruction of the house of a little field mouse just as winter sets in, 
and the loss of an entire fortune by a man. Both had struggled to get 
their homes and supplies and both were equally outcasts. The Autocrat 
has seen an equally interesting comparison to be drawn from the 
nautilus. 

He knew that many of the boarders were unacquainted with this ani¬ 
mal, so he told them about it, since there would have been no use in 
trying to draw a comparison to it until they knew what it was. He 
explained to them that it was a little sea animal living in a small shell 
which it had built around itself. Becoming dissatisfied with the first 
room it would add a larger one to it and move in, closing the door into 
the first. A similar change would take place again and again for the 
nautilus was never content to remain in its present abode but con¬ 
tinually built one after another, until at death, it would dwell in the 
best that it had ever made. Behind it would stretch the empty chambers 
from which it had stepped to something better, thus making the shell 
a spiral or cornucopia in shape. After the Autocrat had explained the 
habit of the nautilus, he asked if any one could see a lesson in this. 
Do you? He then read the poem. 


7 




PART ONE 

Read the poem over again and again until you understand with what 
the Autocrat compared the nautilus. Pay close attention to the last 
stanza. What was the lesson the author wanted to teach from this 
little shellfish? What do you think of a person who is able to see such 
a beautiful and helpful lesson in any thing so small and common? Can 
you look about you at the every day things you know so well and get 
from them some helpful idea ? 

The poem as a whole, containing only five stanzas, may seem short 
when you think of the long stories in verse, like Evangeline or Hiawatha. 
This poem does not tell a story. It deals with a feeling found in almost 
every person. What feeling or longing is it? Because it does this, it 
is called lyric poetry. Any lyric poem has one central thought. What 
is the central thought in The Chambered Nautilus? 


PART TWO 

As you have read the poem you have noticed that it could be divided 
into two parts because of a marked change in thought between the first 
three and the last two stanzas. The first three stanzas deal with the 
nautilus, telling us about its appearance, its manner of living, where 
it was found, and referring to an old legend in connection with it. Until 
the poet has acquainted us with this little animal and has interested us 
in it, he does not want to introduce any higher ideas. When he has 
made us alive to its beauty by its poetical language, and has drawn us 
away from our sordid and prosaic thoughts, he then leads us to a more 
advanced idea and shows us besides a beautiful picture, a spiritual 
teaching. 

It is only fair, then, to give a thorough study to this poem and find 
out the exact meaning of every word and line that we may better enjoy 
its whole beauty and get a clear understanding of its message. Clearly 
understanding a poem will never hurt our appreciation of it nor ought to 
lessen our enjoyment of its beauty. You may, for instance, enjoy read¬ 
ing the word “irised” (line 7, stanza two) without looking up its mean¬ 
ing. It is new and has a poetical sound which may delight you as you 
say it. However, if you remember at the same time the soft delicate 
colors of the rainbow as you have seen them traced on the inner surface 
of a sea shell, does the word “irised” lose any of its beauty? Remember 
this word the next time you break open a clam shell. 

We will therefore make a careful study of first— 


8 


l 

Group I 

(Stanzas One, Two and Three ) 

The author had two clear pictures iu his mind while making these 
stanzas. Try to get them just as clearly as if you had witnessed them 
with your own eyes. Imagine that he is talking with you, holding in 
his hand a little shell which had been washed up from some deep part 
of the ocean after the owner had left his house. As the writer of the 
poem looks down upon the shell, he imagines it as it was with its inmate 
alive, basing his ideas upon the old legend told of it. Try to see what 
he saw. 

Stanza One—The Nautilus Alive 

He speaks of the shell as a ship of pearl because he says that poets 
have always pretended that it was a fairy boat sailing over that part 
of the ocean never visited by ordinary ships and mortal men, a kind of 
ocean fairyland. Why did he call it a pearl ship? Why not just a 
wooden boat? What figure of speech has he employed? Can you see 
any reason for using the word “unshadowed” ? In the imaginary picture 
you are making for yourself of this far-away place, is the glassy mirror 
of the sea dotted with steamers and fishing boats, or is it solitary? 
What right have you to imagine the place so? “Main” is a poetical 
word often used meaning sea. 

The old fairy stories go on to say that this little boat would raise a 
purple sail when it started out. What do you imagine would be the 
texture of that sail? Why should the sail of a boat be likened to a 
wing? Again what figure of speech is used? Why should such a ship 
be called venturous? In what kind of writing have you read before the 
word “bark” for ship? Evidently this enchanted place is in the tropics. 
What makes you think so? Why did not the poet imagine it to be in 
the Arctic regions? Who were the sirens? (See mythology.) Why 
should they live in an enchanted gulf? Can you see in your picture the 
sea nymphs with their flowing hair, sunning themselves on the coral 
reefs ? Read up about coral reefs if you have forgotten, so that you will 
be seeing what the author saw. If you could touch these maidens as 
they rise dripping from the sea, would they be warm or cold ? 

Do not be satisfied until you can see the picture of the sea. How 
would the wind feel on your face? What smell would be wafted to you? 
Is it a place where you would like to stay or would you be anxious to 
get back to a workaday world ? 

In this stanza has the poet forgotten once that he is imagining the 
shell in his hand to be a fairy boat? Go through the stanza and note 
what words he uses to preserve his figure of speech throughout. 


9 


Stanza Two—The Dead Nautilus 

He is still thinking of the fairy boat in the next two lines. Is it still 
sailing the enchanted sea as he now thinks of it? Where is it? To 
what does he again liken the sail? Why does he use the adjective 
“living” ? How does the word “wrecked” help the metaphor more than 
“destroyed” or “abandoned” would have? 

After the first two lines there is a change in the comparison and the 
author imagines the shell to be a house with a number of rooms. Why 
is this a good metaphor to draw? What words in this stanza and the 
next prove that he now thought of the shell as a residence? Is there 
a happy air about the little home as if the owner was busy and con¬ 
tented within? How does the author convey his impression to you? The 
nautilus is a very low form of life like the oyster, its whole existence 
being spent within the closed rooms of its shell. Why are “dim dream¬ 
ing” good words to use, then? What other words in the stanza refer to 
the soft light within the house? 

By using the word, “crypt,” the quiet darkened home of the nautilus 
is compared to what? What does “unsealed” indicate concerning its 
frail tenant? 

Stanza Three—The Building of the House 

Many of us, upon picking up a shell, never think of it as the result of 
the toil of a little animal which has built it and made it not only a 
shelter but a beautiful one. Now that the poet has pointed it out to you, 
will you not have a different feeling for other shells? If you are sure 
that you understand the manner in which the nautilus built its home, 
write it out in your own words. Compare it with Holmes’ description. 
Both tell the truth. Which tells it in the pleasanter way and which re¬ 
veals the greater beauty ? What other word besides “coil” not mentioned 
before might be used to give an equally good description of the appear¬ 
ance of the house? What part of the shell do “lustrous” and “shining” 
help to emphasize again ? As you read this over are there any words you 
think particularly well used here? Why? Do the words “noisy” and 
“boisterous” seem to apply to this verse? Give reasons. Explain the 
last line. 


Group II 

(Stanzas Four and Five) 

The author is now ready to bring in a higher thought, for the good we 
derive from any thing is greater than our appreciation of its beauty. 
He now addresses the spirit of the dead nautilus which had lived in the 
shell. What figure of speech is this? 



10 


Stanza Four—Thanks for the Message 

In this stanza he expresses his thanks for the lesson which has been 
taught since he feels anxious to copy its example. Why is the idea of 
the nautilus being “a child of the sea” a good one? Does the adjective 
“forlorn” remind you of any feeling excited in you for this animal in 
any other stanza? Which one? Why should the silent toil speak more 
clearly than a horn blown by Triton ? Find out who Triton was. Why 
was his horn “wreathed?” See if there is anything in the story to have 
turned the poet’s mind to deep hollow caves for he now speaks of the 
distant part of his mind resembling a cave from which he seems to get 
a message telling him the lesson taught by the nautilus. So plain is it 
that it seems like an inner voice speaking to him. 

Stanza Five—Message 

This contains the message which he hears. He is told to profit by the 
example of the nautilus, for he, too, is a builder constructing a soul. 
Instead, then, of never trying to improve, he should always be trying 
to grow into something better. The poet takes the message only to 
himself but it applies to all of us. We ought to see greater possibilities 
ahead of us and strive to grow into the new self we desire to be, never 
being satisfied unless aiming at something more. We can never reach 
perfection for earthly life necessarily covers us like a temple, yet we do 
not need to remain in a small, dark, narrow room. Though we must be 
shut away from heaven for a time we are all able to make a larger room 
for ourselves as the little shellfish did. Instead of being confined in a 
low prison with slanting roofs we may dwell in a spacious, airy cham¬ 
ber, whose ceiling is a vast dome instead of a cramped gable. Such a 
dwelling place was obtained by the nautilus through perseverance and 
Holmes tells us we can do the same for ourselves if we want to try. 
Finally the nautilus was free from all bondage and left its shell by the 
sea, so the poet says we will finally be able to cast aside even the con¬ 
finement of a great temple and reach true perfection after death. 

What is the new metaphor in this stanza? Who is the builder now? 
What is compared to a temple? Why is “stately” a better adjective 
than "“larger” ? Explain “swift seasons.” What noun must you supply 
after “past” to complete the idea? What is there in the word “unrest¬ 
ing” which helps the comparison of life to a sea? 

If Holmes had been content to show us only the beauty of the shell 
and tell us the legend, could he have used the last stanza with any effect? 
Show how the third stanza is the connecting link of the poem. 

Now that you have finished studying the poem in this way, would you 
add or subtract anything from it? Try, and see what would happen. 


\ 


11 


One of Holmes’ critics lias said that it was complete. What reasons do 
you suppose he would give for this? 

Any really great poem always sets forth some ideal which we can all 
take for our own and profit by. It gives us some aim in life for which 
to strive and become better by the effort. It is because The Chambered 
Nautilus possesses this characteristic that it has survived. Otherwise 
it would have been lost. We are hardly able to appreciate the great good 
which has been done to the world by the ideals which the poets have set 
forth. All of them do not find their lessons in simple nature. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes did, and whether he brought us a new idea, or only 
expressed a thought which we had half formed in our minds and could 
not find the words to describe, we are equally indebted. We should 
learn to appreciate the fact that literature holds not only this one en¬ 
nobling poem but many, and by studying them see what literature can 
do for us. 


PART THREE 

In rewriting the third stanza you undoubtedly found that your para¬ 
graph was far from being as good as Holmes’ stanza. The thought, of 
course, was the same. Perhaps you said that it did not sound so well. 
One reason for this was because yours was in prose while Holmes wrote 
in poetry. Some one has said that when an idea is in prose, it is in its 
everyday dress, while if it has been written in poetry, it has put on its 
best dress. We all know why our best clothes are more beautiful than 
our everyday ones. Let us now try to see if we can find some of the 
secrets which made Holmes’ poem so much more beautiful than our 
attempt. We have already granted him our admiration for drawing 
such a helpful idea from so common a thing as a sea shell. Let us try 
to see what means he employed to dress up the thought so that it would 
not only help the reader but delight him by the beautiful way in which 
it was told. We are all justified in liking beautiful things. We want 
to learn to appreciate only the best that our admiration may not be 
wasted on anything inferior. 

Figures of Speech 1 —By going through the poem as we have just studied 
it, we found that the idea was helped by comparisons or figures of 
speech. What figure predominated? We found also, that certain words 
seemed to fit exactly the particular places given them. Some Of the words 
pleased us because they were unusual. Go through the poem and pick 
out the words that you are sure would occur only in poetry. Do not 
even omit the title. Try substituting the equivalent prose word and see 
the effect. 

) 

*> 


J See page 14. 



12 


Rhythm—The rhythm also helps to make the poem beautiful. Who has 
not, in hearing music, caught himself beating time? The poet makes 
use of this feeling in us and is careful to arrange his accented and un¬ 
accented syllables according to a regular plan having them recur regu¬ 
larly. We do not like it if they do not. Try reading line five, stanza 
four. How do you pronounce “wreathed” so that the line has a musical 
swing? How many syllables must it have in order to preserve the 
rhythm? The person who reads in a singsong way emphasizes the 
accent too much, but to test the rhythm read it in that way, tapping 
heavily with your pencil when the accented syllables occur. Notice in 
line four, stanza five, that the first syllable is light and the second 
stressed. Notice also that the scheme is repeated five times in the line. 
The plan changes for other lines. Find a different one. Test the poem 
and see if the same kind of a line has been used in the same position in 
each of the five stanzas. After reading the poem aloud which of the 
following words would you say described the movement of the poem ? 

Smooth, slow, dignified, stately, solemn; 

Light, swift, impetuous, rippling, rollicking; 

Easy, graceful, spirited, powerful, regular; 

Varied, irregular, uneven, halting. 1 

Rhyme—Besides rhythm we also like rhyme, that is, the use of words 
having a similar sound as in stanza one:— 

Feign, a Flings, b Bare, c 

Main, a Wings, b Hair, c 

Sings, b 

Does the same rhyme plan, aa bbb cc, prevail in each stanza? 

Alliteration—Another thing which you may not have realized that you 
enjoyed, was the use. of a number of words beginning with the same 
sound. It is a taste inherited from our Anglo Saxon forefathers. We 
call such a choice of words “alliteration.” Think of the names of, your 
friends and see how many have the same initial for both given and 
family name. Which is the more euphonious name, “Belle Norton” or 
“Nora Norton”? Find the number of times Holmes has tried to please 
our ear by this device. 

Sound Suggests Sense—The sound of a word also helps to hint at sense 
sometimes. Would you not be able to get an idea of the difference in 
the action by merely hearing the words “roll” and “rent” ? Can you find 
other examples in the poem? 

At times the sound of a whole line suggests its meaning. Did the 
sound of stanza three help to give a quieting effect? The soft “S” is al¬ 
ways used in hushing a noise. Does it appear often in this part of the 
poem? Compare the sound and swing of The Chambered Nautilus with 

-- t 

! How to Study Literature—B. A. Heydrick. 1 ' 



13 


the movement of Marching Through Georgia. Does the meaning seem 
to fit the rhythm in each case? Would it do to interchange the words? 

These are some of the means by which Holmes has “dressed up” his 
lesson so that you enjoy reading it. Does it not help in your ap¬ 
preciation of it to understand, not only the meaning, but also its beauty? 
Will you not be glad to remember the same things in connection with 
your next poem, and like it all the better for your knowledge of them ? 


PART FOUR 

Practice reading the poem aloud until you are able to convey its exact 
meaning. Learn the entire poem. The last stanza is said by some critics 
to be the best known stanza in American literature. 

(Suggestion to the Teacher—Look up the various members of the 
boarding house and become acquainted with the landlady, her children, 
the young man whom they call John, the gentleman opposite, etc. 
Assign a character to the various pupils and let them sit about a table. 
Then as a recognition of good work let the best reader impersonate the 
Autocrat and give The Chambered Nautilus. It will make an interesting 
class exercise for the lesson concluding this classic.) 


PART FIVE 

Have you now enough interest in the poem to want to know more of 
the man who wrote it? You will be glad to find out that there is a par¬ 
ticular reason why we Americans should be proud of him. If you would 
like to know more about him look up his life. 


A sketch of the life of Oliver Wendell Holmes will be found in the 
following books: 

Introduction to American Literature, Brander Matthews, American 
Book Co. 

American Literature, Wm. J. Long, Ginn & Co. 

American Literature, Julian W. Abernathy, Chas. E. Merrill Co. 

American Literature for Secondary Schools, Wm. B. Cairns, The Mac¬ 
millan Company. 

A History of American Literature, Fred L. Pattee, Silver, Burdett 
& Co. 

Introduction to American Literature, F. V. N. Painter, Sibley & Co. 



14 


An Introduction to American Literature, Henry S. Pancoast, Henry 
Holt & Co. 

American Literature, Wm. C. Lawton, World Book Co. 

Studies in American Literature, Chas. Noble, The Macmillan Co. 
Holmes’ The Chambered Nautilus, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Speech, 
Lucy A. Sloan, Sloan Publishing Co. 

The Chambered Nautilus and Gettysburg Speech, Educational Pub¬ 
lishing Co. 


FIGURES OF SPEECH 

Figures of speech are variations of the ordinary forms of expression 
which make the thought more attractive or striking. We explain below 
the more common figures. 

Simile.—A figure of speech which makes a comparison between two 
things that are very different in their nature, but which are alike in 
some respects, by asserting one is like the other. 

Example: He was like a lion in the fight. 

Metaphor.—A figure of speech which makes a comparison between two 
things that are very different in their nature, but which are alike in 
some respects, (1). by asserting one is the other; or (2) by speaking of it 
as if it were the other. 

Examples: 1. He was a lion in the fight. 

2. The ship plows the sea. 

Personification.—A figure of speech in which (1) an idea or thing is 
represented as a living being; or (2) an animal is represented as a 
person. 

Examples: 1. The wind howled. 

2. The dog laughed. 

Apostrophe.—Apostrophe is direct address to the absent as if they were 
present; to the dead as if they were living; or to things as if they had life. 

Example: O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy 
victory ? 


BOOKS ESPECIALLY HELPFUL IN TEACHING READING AND 
LITERATURE 

What Can Literature Do for Me? by C. Alphonso Smith, Doubleday, 
Page & Co. 

Famous Poems Explained, Waitman Barbe, Hinds, Noble & Eldredge. 
English in the Country School, W'alter Barnes, Row, Peterson & Co. 
Literature in the Common Schools, John Harrington Cox, Little 
Brown & Co. 

Reading in Public Schools, Briggs & Coffman, Row, Peterson & Co. 
Teaching Children to Read, Paul Clapper, D. Appleton & Co. 

Literature in the School, John S. Welch, Silver, Burdett & Co. 

Method and Methods in the Teaching of English, I. E. Goldwasser, 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

How to Study Literature, B. A. Heydrick, Hinds, Noble & Eldredge. 
Intensive Studies in American Literature, Alma Blount, Macmillan 
Company. 











































































































































































